


On Horrible Puns, Wing(wo)men, and Arguably Too Many Emotions (One Pun is All It Took Remix)

by Anonymous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Be sure to read the other fic first, Because a good chunk of the dialogue comes from that, Gen, Miraculous Remix 2016, The relationships are really just implied more than actually the focus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 10:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8708641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: All things considered, it was weird. Alya recognized that, but she also recognized that Marinette was weird, especially when it came to Adrien. So she decided that instead of being worried for Marinette’s mental health, the time had come to capitalize on the fact that Adrien was worried for Marinette’s mental health.Maybe not the best angle to go for when wingmanning, but hey. Alya worked with what she had.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PrincessSunset (Theabea)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theabea/gifts).
  * Inspired by [One Pun Is All It Took](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6768139) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



> I've never done a Remix before, so it was really interesting to do! I remixed One Pun Is All It Took by PrincessSunset, taking the events and spinning them from Alya's point of view. You could probably read this without reading that, but I think you'll want to read the other fic... at the very least to see how things pan out for Marinette ;)
> 
> Thank you so much to [Megatraven](http://megatraven.tumblr.com/) for beta!

“C’mon girl, it’ll be fun. Adrien and Nino already agreed to come, you can’t be the only one to stay inside!” Alya smiled sweetly and encouragingly at Marinette, but she made sure her eyes promised death if the other girl dared to refuse. It was the same look that had convinced both Adrien and Nino, and the mild terror mixed with awe that was reflected in Marinette’s eyes matched the look that the boys had had. Good. They were learning.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming. Let me put this away first.” Marinette gestured to the diary in her hands, and Alya nodded.

“You have five minutes before I come back up to drag you out!” Alya said gleefully, head disappearing as quickly as it had popped up from below the trap door in the first place. She felt vaguely like a whack-a-mole, but time was of the essence.

Alya descended the steps and found Marinette’s mother looking at her from below. She smiled and waved at her in a belated hello. Perhaps she should have felt more embarrassed at having barged into the woman’s house, but Sabine had never minded before. “Mrs. Cheng, you don’t mind me stealing Marinette for the night, do you?”

Sabine smile grew just a little, shaking her head as her eyes lit up. “Not at all, I was just thinking how nice it would be to get her out of the house. I feel like she spends so much time in her room, doing homework.”

Alya was pretty sure that whatever Marinette was doing, it wasn’t homework, because she had watched the girl beg forgiveness for not having it just a couple days prior. But that thought was cut off as Marinette appeared behind Alya, ready to leave.

“I’ll be sure to get her out of the house, Mrs. Cheng! You can count on me.”

Marinette laughed wryly at a joke that Alya didn’t get, but her questioning look was waved away. She added it to a list of things to ask about when the time was right, and grabbed Marinette’s hand to pull her along.  
  
  


Of course, Alya had a plan for the evening. She loved hanging with her friends, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t kill two birds with one stone. As soon as they arrived at the place she’d picked, Alya abandoned Marinette, slipping into the booth beside Nino and attaching herself to him, forcing Marinette to sit next to Adrien. 

She then spent the night watching the ridiculous couple out of the corner of her eye, grinning triumphantly as Marinette laughed and talked without stuttering. 

Around the fifth time Adrien shot Marinette a fond look without her seeming to notice, Alya found herself needing to intervene. She leaned forward, catching Adrien’s eye with her reporter’s gleam in her own. “So Adrien,” she started, only finding herself enjoying this more as he looked at her guiltily. She couldn’t stop the teasing smirk that found its way onto her face if she tried. “How's your love life? Has some tasty little thing snatched you up yet?”

Everyone at the table knew the answer, of course, but even so Alya caught the tension entering Marinette. She wanted to roll her eyes and yell, ‘If anyone it’s you!’ but she couldn’t really do that right now. Maybe later.

Adrien sighed, and then delivered the single worst line Alya had ever heard. "Nope, this alley cat is pawsitivly mewnly. I've been trying to chase after one little love bug, but she just rejects me."

The smarter part of Alya noted the fact that whoever he was describing, it couldn’t be Marinette, and that part started setting off alarm bells. That part was drowned out by the other part of Alya that was just yelling, “Is this what homeschooling does to the psyche? Does it make you so sad and confused that you think cat puns are funny?” That particular part of her was so loud that she almost missed Marinette’s response. Almost, but not quite.

“Are you FUCKING serious?”

Alya blinked in surprise as Marinette voiced the same thoughts that Alya had been holding in, but she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Even Marinette had a breaking point when it came to terrible puns, it seemed. “Daaaaaaaammmmnn girl, I don't think I have ever heard you swear like that!”

Nino laughed beside her, and she looked to him for confirmation, completely missing the (murderous and terrified, in parts) conversation happening across the table. “But I mean, that was a pretty bad pun, right?”

Nino smiled at her, chuckling as he nodded. “Yeah, Adrien has a weird sense of humor sometimes. I try to tell him that cat puns are only funny when it has to do with cats, but he insists he’s hilarious, I just don’t get it.”

“Isn’t that what they all say? ‘I’m funny, you just don’t get it’.” She laughed again, turning to pull Marinette into the teasing, but stopped short when she saw the cold fire in the girl’s eyes as she looked at Adrien. Alya pulled back with a muted sound of confusion, turning to look at Nino for help. The boy was looking between the other two with just as much confusion as she was, and Adrien just looked at them with a sheepish smile. Marinette didn’t even seem to notice.

Damn, the girl  _ really _ hated puns. Apparently.

Alya laughed awkwardly and tried to go on with the night, dragging Nino and Adrien along with her own conversational skills, but Adrien kept shooting concerned looks at Marinette, and Marinette kept alternatively trying to set him on fire with her eyes alone and deconstruct him through sheer force of will.

Alya and Nino kept inane conversation, but neither were really paying attention to each other as they watched Marinette’s thoughts playing out on her face. Anger, guilt, anger again, more guilt, resignation… Alya recognized the next expression as either the look she got when she was thinking about Adrien’s eyes or the look she got when she was thinking about Adrien’s hair. (Alya was close to an expert in studying these expressions, but those two looks still caught her up sometimes. She theorized that maybe when she thought about his eyes it was more of a faraway look in her eyes, a dreamlike stupor, but had yet to confirm that.) 

And now Marinette was blushing, catching Adrien’s gaze for a long moment, staring at him as if she was trying to spontaneously manifest telepathy. He met her stare with a blank look, and though she seemed to have forgotten they existed, Alya and Nino gave first each other and then her similarly confused looks. 

After a few moments, she seemed to give up all hope and collapsed her head onto the table. Conversation had died about four seconds into the staring contest, but Alya broke the silence with a concerned, “Marinette, are you… okay?”

“Tired,” Marinette replied, not bothering to lift her head. She did, however, turn to resume staring at Adrien. He awkwardly tried to comfort her, and Alya watched with some satisfaction as he stiffly patted her back. She didn’t even jump when Marinette proceeded to slam her head against the table and groan.

All things considered, it was weird. Alya recognized that, but she also recognized that Marinette was weird, especially when it came to Adrien. So she decided that instead of being worried for Marinette’s mental health, the time had come to capitalize on the fact that  _ Adrien _ was worried for Marinette’s mental health.

Maybe not the best angle to go for when wingmanning, but hey. Alya worked with what she had.

When the place announced they were closing, Alya caught Marinette’s eye and grinned.

“SOOOOOO, NINO'S GONNA WALK ME HOME. YOU TWO HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!”

She grabbed Nino and pulled him into the street, leaving behind a bewildered Adrien and a possibly-on-the-verge-of-a-mental-breakdown-but-probably-fine-enough Marinette.

Nino managed to walk along with Alya for a single block without commenting, just staring back at the building where he’d abandoned his best friend. But finally, he turned to look at Alya, small smile on his face. “Are you sure that was a good idea? Marinette seemed like… angry?” That was putting it lightly, but it wasn’t like there was a better word to use.

“She’ll be fine. She just needs some TLC from our resident model.”

“What if this backfires?” 

Alya shot Nino a poisonous look, and he only held his hand up in surrender. “Hey, chill,” he said, still smiling, but Alya detected the right amount of fear underneath the smile that she let him continue. “I’m just saying she was having some kind of a hard time. What if Adrien decides it’s too much?”

“...Well, I don’t know. But after that horrible pun he should be lucky any girl is interested in him at all.” Alya shrugged, not really sure what else to say, and not acknowledging the non-sequitur in her logic. She was more of a hands-off matchmaker- her job was simply to get Marinette time with Adrien, and Marinette’s shining personality was sure to do the rest. Even when said personality seemed to be manifesting itself in multiples that night. “They’re both hot messes, anyway. It’s perfect.”

“If you say so,” Nino replied lightly, a laugh in his voice.

“I do. You know I’m never wrong.”

“Yeah, no comment.”

Alya smacked Nino with her free hand, but she didn’t let go of the one that was already wound around his arm. “Walk me home and I’ll forget you said that. But  _ something  _ is happening between them tonight. My gut tells me it’s good. Or will be.” 

Nino made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, and Alya rolled her eyes. She was an amazing matchmaker. Something was happening tonight, even if she had no idea what was running through Marinette’s head. And to think, a pun was all it took.  
  



End file.
